Does a hospital’s IT architecture fit with its strategy? An approach to measure the alignment of health information technology

Abstract

Hospitals as the main entities of healthcare need to respond to policy initiatives affecting in particular the quality, efficiency and costs of health service delivery as well as cope with continuous technological advancements. Considering the information intensive character of healthcare, a shift in a hospital’s business policy also induces potentials and pitfalls to the management of health information technology. In this sense, this paper strives to find an answer to the problem how to reduce misalignment of the business and IT architecture in hospitals. Following the design science research methodology, this paper emphasises the description of a method named H-BIT, which may support decision-makers in overcoming this alignment problem. Implications for healthcare practice are reported based on the experiences that were gained from the exemplary application of the method at a larger hospital.